


you're the lighthouse in the storm

by PineConeLouis (roylskilleen)



Series: we will carve our place into time and space [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Asexual Character, Asexual Louis, Asexuality, Genderfluid Character, M/M, Multi, Nail Polish, Polyamory, YouTuber Louis, genderfluid Louis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-12 01:03:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10478577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roylskilleen/pseuds/PineConeLouis
Summary: Liam and Niall leave the room and Louis sighs again, starting to paint his nails again. Only this time, he lets them dry in between each coat, using the cool setting on his blow dryer to speed up the process. In the hour and it had taken him the first time to get to twenty coats, he's only at ten now. He scrunches his face and glances at the camera."I've made a mistake," is all he says before focusing back down on his nails.-in which Louis may or may not love nail polish more than he loves Liam and Niall.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't help but combine my love of Cristine simplynailogical and Louis, so this ended up being a thing. It was meant to be longer, but I'm impatient and wanted to get something up since i haven't written fic in about a year now, so here's this! There will be more parts posted in the future, hopefully!!
> 
> title comes from lighthouse by lucy spraggan!

Louis looks down at his nail, mentally asking himself how he manages to find the _patience_ to wait for the nail polish to dry. It always took _forever_ and he's the same person who will complain to Liam and Niall when their takeaway takes even a minute longer than he anticipated.

 

Yet, here he finds himself painting his nails six times a week and actually _waiting_ for them to dry properly so he can put on those new, music nails vinyls he convinced Liam to buy him a week ago. He'd been eyeing them for a while, but he had also promised not only himself, but his bank account, that he would _chill_ on the nail polish supplies.

 

Thankfully, he has one of the _best_ boyfriends he could ask for and it only took Louis two days to beg Liam for the vinyls. He may have thrown in a couple of bottles of holographic nail polish for good measure, but Liam and Niall love spoiling him anyways.

 

He looks up when he hears the door to his office open, grinning when Niall comes in with a Starbucks Frappe and a slice of pizza. “I would die for you, did you know that?” Louis tells him, grabbing the drink with the hand that isn't drying and blowing Niall a kiss.

 

Niall rolls his eyes, but Louis can tell it's done with love and affection. “Mhm, love you, too.” He glances at Louis's nails and raises an eyebrow when he sees them painted only a plain white. “That's not it, right?”

 

Louis scoffs, offended that he's been dating Niall for _this long_ and he thinks Louis is going to leave them _plain white._ Not even a holo top coat. This is the most insulted Louis can say he's ever been in his twenty-four years of life. Actually, that's a lie. He's forgetting when Liam first saw his nails painted and immediately reacted with “ _isn’t that for girls?”_ and a slight grimace. Louis had to sit him down and explain to him that gender roles were just another made up idea from society and it's all complete _bullshit._

 

Maybe if everyone had some holo top coat in their life, the world would be a much better and far less ignorant place.

 

“I'm gonna do music note gradients,” he says, nodding to the makeup sponges and nail polish bottles beside his hand. Niall nods and sits in the chair beside him, glancing over at Louis’s nail polish shelves.

 

“You're gonna need a new one soon,” he says, shaking his head and looking at Louis again. Louis turns around and looks at the lack of space on his last shelf, scrunching his nose. Last time he checked, he had almost two thousand bottles of nail polish. As much as he prides himself in his collection, he'll admit it's becoming a pain in the ass having to keep up with it.

 

“Liam can build me one later,” he says simply, looking back at his nails. He brings them closer to his face, deciding that they're dry enough to lay on the vinyls and sponge on a gradient.

He moves the pizza and drink out of his way, turning his camera back on and resuming filming his nail art. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Niall sneaking a bite of his pizza, but if he moves now he'll ruin the footage for his video and he would've waited half an hour for his fingers to dry for _nothing_. So, he settles for a cold, hard glare as he paints the gradient colors onto the makeup sponge and hopes he gets his point across.

 

Niall gives him a quick kiss on the cheek and laughs, standing up and running his fingers through Louis's hair. “I'm gonna go warn Liam about that shelf.”

 

Louis snorts and dabs the sponge over his index finger that has the vinyl on it. “Tell him I love him more than anything-”

 

“You know he's gonna do it, you don't need to kiss his ass for it.”

 

Louis sticks his tongue out and gasps softly after he finishes the gradient. “Fuck me, I forgot the latex.”

 

“Context, my dear,” Niall quips with a smirk, earning a second cold glare from Louis.

 

“The _simply peel,_ Niall! I forgot to put it on and now I have a gradient mess on my finger. I have to clean it with _acetone_ and you know I hate doing that because it dries my nails.”

 

Niall raises an eyebrow and stares at Louis, leaning against the door frame. “I'm gonna pretend I know what any of that means.”

 

Louis groans and flips him off with his free hand. “Just grab me that pink bottle and my cleanup brushes, dickhead,” he demands, earning a laugh from Niall as he grabs Louis his supplies. Louis grabs them and uses tweezers to pulls off the nail vinyl. He then takes one of the cleanup brushes and dips it in acetone, taking a deep breath and cleaning the excess nail polish off of his nail.

 

Niall rolls his eyes at Louis's dramatics, turning around and walking out the room. “Call me if you need anything,” he tells Louis.

 

Louis doesn't reply, far too focused on making sure he puts a latex barrier on each of his other fingers. If he had to use acetone any more than he usually did, he may just scream in a state of frustration. Besides, peeling off the simply peel was one of the best parts of painting his nails. Right behind peeling off the actual nail polish.

 

He’s been painting his nails since he was about thirteen, using his mum's nail polish been she wasn't home and then taking the paint off the morning before school so none if his friends would see.

 

It was when he was sixteen that we began questioning his gender. It wasn't because if the nail polish, he knew that, but even though he had already come to terms with the day that he was gay, he still found himself staring at girls on TV and in the hallway. He knew that he didn't want up be with them, but he could sense a small amount of envy within him whenever he saw them.

 

He came across the term _genderfluid_ somewhere on Twitter when he turned eighteen and it peaked his interest, so he had decided to look into it. He’d automatically felt a sense of relief when he learned what the word had meant, grateful to have found a word that explained what he had been feeling for the last two years.

 

The first person he had told was Liam and he can still remember how nervous he had felt when he was trying up get the words out. There had been hundreds of thoughts going through his head when he had stood in front of Liam, the loudest one telling him that if Liam didn’t understand it, _no one_ would.

 

Only his worries had been for nothing, because Liam had thankfully understood what Louis had told him and although there was slight confusion on his end, he promised that he’d be supportive of Louis no matter how he ever identified.

 

Louis has known Liam for as long as the other could remember. They’d been friends all throughout their school year, only to start dating when Liam had graduated college and moved to London with Louis for Uni. The transition from friends to boyfriends had been slightly awkward at the beginning, but they'd learned to get used to it eventually. Neither of them had a positive track record when it came to relationships before. Liam tended to fall too hard too fast, which would tend to scare of whoever he was in a relationship with.

 

Louis, on the other hand, was a pro at the romantic part of a relationship. It was just… The sexual part he couldn't quite get on board with. In school he had always been the odd one out in his group of friends. They were all losing their virginity and hooking up with people at parties, but he’d never been interested in anything like that. He was always the socializer, the life of the party. He’d talk to people, make them laugh, act like he was the host of the party when half the time he didn't even know who _was_ the host of the party.

 

As far as losing his virginity goes, he _has_ done it. He can count the number of times he’s had sex on one hand, but he still has the experience. He’d rather do anything besides that, though. That's something none of his past partners had ever taken the chance to understand.

 

Liam had been different, though. He was the first person that he had come out as asexual to and he had been more than understanding. It took a long explanation of what it was and how he felt, but in the end, Liam was still nothing but supportive of him. It meant everything to Louis to know that Liam had meant what he said years ago, that he’d be right beside Louis no matter what he discovered his identity to be.

 

Niall had come into the picture a year or so after when Louis had met him first through a mutual friend. They’d immediately gotten along and he introduced him to Liam not long after, the three of them forming a bond over time. It had escalated to the point where Niall never seemed to consider himself a third wheel and they began to invite him to things that were originally planned as dates for just the two of them.

 

Thinking back on it, there was definitely better ways of inviting Niall into their relationship. No one knew exactly how the conversation was supposed to go, but Louis kissing him while Liam watched a footie game right beside them was bound to catch him off guard. Not that Liam even batted an eyelash as it happened.

 

That'd been the beginning of a long and awkward conversation with the three of them, the trio deciding that they'd attempt a polyamorous relationship and see where that would take them. It then turned into a conversation of Louis explaining he was asexual and Niall being a bit clueless at first, but completely understand once the conversation had come to a close.

 

It's been four years since then and none of them would go back and change a thing. Maybe most people didn't understand their relationship, and sure one of them got accused of cheating on another almost daily, but it was special to them and it made them feel complete.

 

* * *

 

 

Louis leans against the counter as Liam sets up his camera in the kitchen for him. Niall’s pointed out many times that Louis could’ve set it up himself, but each time, Louis simply covers his mouth with his hand and lets Liam continue.

 

At this point, he does know how to set his own camera up, but there’s nothing wrong with wanting your boyfriend to do things for you so you don’t accidentally break your nail. Louis was taking extra precautions.

 

“Alright, all set up,” Liam says, standing up straight and looking back at Louis. Louis takes his hand off Niall’s mouth and smiles.

 

“Thank you, Li,” he responds, sitting at the table and looking back up at Niall. “Ireland.”

Niall stares at him blankly before narrowing his eyes slightly. “What do you want,” he says, not phrasing it as a question. Louis smiles sweetly.

 

“I’m gonna be here all day painting my nails, the least you can do is get me Starbucks,” he says, humming and setting up his polishes. Niall sighs and turns around, already knowing the drill. “I love you!”

 

“I don’t know why I let you take advantage of me.”

 

“Because you love me too.”

 

Niall grabs Liam’s arm and pulls him out the room. “C’mon. You’re suffering with me.” Liam raises an eyebrow and follows him out, leaving Louis alone with his polish and his camera.

 

He waits until he hears the front door shuts to press the record button on his camera and greet the camera just as he usually does. He’s fully prepared himself to spend more than six hours on this video, no matter how much he may regret it later. He even took a day off work for this.

 

It was time for polish mountain.

 

He starts painting his nails, being too impatient to let them dry completely in between coats. He's sure it'll be fine, since he's not using vinyls or anything on top of them. It seems to be working perfectly fine.

 

Niall and Liam come home when he gets to around his twenty-fifth coat, Niall setting Louis' drink on the counter and glancing at his nails.

 

"How's it going?" He asks, sitting in the chair next to Louis' desk. Louis looks at him and makes a tired face.

 

"I'm in nail polish hell, which I didn't even think was possible," he says, banging his head on the table. Liam comes in a couple seconds later, raising an eyebrow when he sees Louis' nails.

 

"Is it meant to look like it's melting?" He asks. Louis frowns, lifting his head and looking back at his nails.

 

"Shit," Louis swears, throwing his head back and groaning loudly. "I wasn't letting them dry because I'm impatient and now it's just... a mess."

 

He sits up straight and glares at his nails for betraying him this way. He'd already spent over an hour on the ones he'd done, but this wasn't a mountain. This was like... a sad mudslide. He couldn't paint on top of this, he'd have to take everything off and start all over. Oh god... this was going to take forever.

 

Louis sighs and starts peeling off the nail polish, thanking the nail polish gods that he'd been smart and put a peel off base-coat before he started. He leans over when he's done, grabbing his blow dryer and plugging it in. He was gonna do this the right way this time.

Niall stands up and kisses the top of Louis's head. "Need anything?" He asks. Louis shakes his head, lining all of this polishes up again and adding his peel off base-coat back onto his now bare nails.

 

Liam and Niall leave the room and Louis sighs again, starting to paint his nails again. Only this time, he lets them dry in between each coat, using the cool setting on his blow dryer to speed up the process. In the hour and it had taken him the first time to get to twenty coats, he's only at ten now. He scrunches his face and glances at the camera.

 

"I've made a mistake," is all he says before focusing back down on his nails.

 

Liam comes in about two hours later, when Louis's finally at his thirtieth coat of nail polish. He hands him a slice of pizza and another cup from Starbucks, to which Louis is forever grateful that he has someone like Liam in his life to just _know_ what Louis needs without having to ask.

 

He blows Liam a kiss and smiles when Liam kisses the top of his head before leaving. He turns back to his nails, glancing at his clock and groaning slightly when he realizes how much time has passed and how little he has done. There's still seventy coats left to go and he already wanted to throw the towel in.

 

Seven hours into polish mountain and he's made his way to sixty-five coats of nail polish. At this point, he's sure that the nail polish fumes are starting to get to his head. Niall had brought him another drink and another slice of pizza at his sixth hour of filming, but he's already finished three quarters of his drink and he's sure that with the chemicals is not a good mix.

 

"I'm never doing this again," he says, looking at his camera briefly then looking back down at his nails. This was taking so much longer than he'd thought it would.

 

He nearly starts to lose track of how many coats he has when he reaches the eleventh hour, but he reckons he's at around ninety by now. He'll go for another hour and see how many more he ends up with. He's tired and has finally reached a point where he can't stand to smell anymore of the nail polish. Now might've been a good time to buy the kids' scented nail polish. The smell of chemicals with a hint of strawberry sounds nice. He needed a change.

 

As soon as the twelfth hour hits, he closes all of his nail polish bottles and stares down at his fingers, amazed at what he'd just done. He has, what he's sure is, 107 coats of nail polish on his nails.

 

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have just made history," he says, half asleep. This was the longest day of his life, hands down. He never wants to do this ever again. "107 coats of nail polish on my nails. Iconic."

 

He peels off the layers and then ends the video, shutting his camera off and laying his head down on his desk. He really doesn't want to get up right now.

 

As if on cue, Liam comes into the room and leans against the doorframe. "Need me to carry you?"

 

Louis just makes a grunt in hopes Liam will recognize it as a _yes please_. Thankfully, he does, going over to Louis and picking him up bridal style. He carries him to their room, where Niall is already fast asleep. He sets him down in the middle before getting in bed himself. "How'd it go?"

 

"107," is all Louis says before shutting his eyes and falling asleep before Liam can ask him anything else.

* * *

It's approximately three twenty-seven in the afternoon when Louis breaks his nail. It's also at that time that Liam and Niall find themselves rushing into the kitchen because Louis couldn't help but scream loud enough that all of London could hear.

 

“It broke! It's broken!” Louis announces frantically, waving his hand in front of the faces of his boyfriends. Liam frowns as Niall leans forward, grabbing Louis's hand and inspecting the broken nail. Louis’s babbling incoherently as he looks at it, on the verge of tears as Liam tries to comfort him.

 

“This is it, this is the end! I will never love again!” Louis yells, tearing up. He always has been one for dramatics.

 

“Louis- It's just a nail,” Liam tells him, but by the way Louis and Niall's heads both shoot up to look at him, he can tell that was already the wrong thing to say.

 

“It's not _just_ a nail. It's an _art_ , Liam. And it's just been _destroyed_.” Louis kicks the fridge door and frowns when it only hurts his foot. “Fuck you capitalism!”

 

The dogs come running into the kitchen and gather at Louis's feet, in what Louis will assume is to comfort him in his time of mourning. He sits on the ground with them both, petting Beckham with one hand and resting the one with the broken nail on Bucky.

 

“If there was ever a time to kill me and collect my life insurance, if would be now. Do it. Pull the trigger, Liam. It can't hurt more than this,” he whines, not even flinching when Beckham goes to lick his face.

 

Liam rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, looking at Niall. “What are we gonna do with him?” He asks, raising an eyebrow. Niall looks at him and shrugs, shoving his hands in his pocket. Liam sighs and looks back down at Louis, holding his hand out for him to grab. Louis hesitantly grabs it, letting Liam pull him up.

 

“C’mon then. This isn't the first time you've broken a nail,” Liam points out, but Louis just groans and leans his head into his shoulder. Liam blinks and slowly pats Louis’s back comfortingly, not sure what he said wrong.

 

Niall snorts from beside them, opening the fridge and grabbing a beer. “Just like- I dunno. Isn't there something you can do to fix it?” He asks. Louis shrugs, standing up straight.

 

“I'm gonna have to file them down and make them all short,” he mumbles, looking at his nails sadly. It’s been over a year since he’s last had short nails. He’s done a few nail art videos for short nails before, but it wasn't something he was used to. “This is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. The _worst,_ ” he emphasizes.

 

"I'll get you nail polish if you promise to stop,” Niall offers. Louis glances up at him and raises an eyebrow.

 

“Holo glitters?”

 

“Yes, holo glitters.”

 

Louis stands up and practically jumps onto Niall, hugging him tightly and pretending to wipe the fake tears from his eyes. Niall rolls his eyes and hugs him back, glancing at Liam and sighing. “Fifty quid max.”

 

Louis nods and grins. “Of course,” he says, smiling innocently. Niall stares at him and sighs in defeat, knowing he’s going to end up with more than fifty pounds of nail polish to his name after today.

 

* * *

 

Niall and Liam are woken up the next morning by Louis jumping on top of the bed and sprawling out over both of them. “You're gonna be late to the _funeral_ ,” he tells them, sitting up and pulling on their hands.

 

They both look Louis up and down, mimicking each other's furrowed eyebrows when they notice he’s dressed up in a suit, tie and all.

 

“Alright I'll budge, what the hell are you talking about?” Niall asks, raising an eyebrow. Between him and Liam, he was the only one that ever asked questions. Liam had learned a long time ago that none of Louis’ madness ever had an explanation. All he could do is watch from the sidelines and hope that he wouldn't get hurt in the process.

 

Niall, on the other hand, questioned _everything_. He questioned why Louis dipped his fingers in a cup of water and muttered “save me water marble gods” then decided to put it on the internet. He questioned why Louis let Zayn and Harry use paint rollers to coat him in nail polish. He also had to question why Louis was awake at six o’clock in the morning, wearing a suit and screaming about a funeral.

 

“My _nail_ ,” Louis reminds, getting off the bed and opening the window curtains. He can't believe Niall would just forget about the tragedy that was his nail _breaking._ Niall shields his eyes with his hand and sighs.

 

“Can’t we do that at noon? Why now. Why are you like this?” He knows he’s never going to get an answer to that question.

 

“ _Excuse me,_ ” Louis says, offended. “If you or Liam died I would _never_ postpone your funerals. This is important.”

 

Niall stares at Louis before glancing over at Liam. “Were we just compared to a fingernail?”

 

Liam shrugs and glances at the clock, rubbing his eyes and looking at Louis. “I know it's important, Lou, but can we at least get another two hours of sleep? I promise we’ll be up and ready to do the funeral by then.”

 

Louis pouts, but nods, shutting the curtain and crawling in the middle of the bed. Niall rolls his eyes in what Louis assumes was meant to convey annoyance, but he sees the fond smile creep on his lips in a matter of seconds. Louis grins, wrapping his arms around Niall and kissing his cheek.

 

"You know you love my dramatics, Ireland," he says. Niall makes a face, but laughs and nods. He kisses Louis quickly then glances over at Liam, who's already fallen back asleep. Him and Louis both shake their heads, Louis giving Niall a mischievous smile before turning over and shoving Liam off the bed.

 

Liam hits the floor with a loud _thud,_ sitting up and rubbing his head while he narrows his eyes at his boyfriends. "I don't know why I put up with this," he mutters.

 

Louis laughs and holds his hand out, pulling Liam onto the bed. "Because you love us dearly." Liam rolls his eyes as he gets back into bed, shoving Louis playfully before laying back down and having his second attempt of falling back to sleep.

 

Louis kisses his cheek quickly and grins when he sees Liam smile slightly. He turns back to Niall and pouts when he sees the other boy had gone back to bed as well. He sighs and crawls out of the bed, brushing out the wrinkles he put in his suit as best as he could and leaving the room quietly.

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on [tumblr](http://pointstohome.tumblr.com/):)


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